


'Tis the season to...

by miss_liding



Category: World Trigger
Genre: Gen, and a bunch of others but i just tagged the ones that didn't seem to have tags yet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-16
Updated: 2014-12-16
Packaged: 2018-03-01 14:21:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2776205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_liding/pseuds/miss_liding
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>1. eat food<br/>2. shoot promos<br/>3. feel the chill<br/>4. run away from familial duties like the useless swordfighting lump you are<br/>(A dump of short and vaguely seasonal WT fics.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	'Tis the season to...

**Author's Note:**

> Cast:  
> 1\. Miwa, Yoneya, Jin  
> 2\. Arashiyama Unit  
> 3\. Mikumo, Kuuga  
> 4\. Tachikawa, Shinoda, Kazama

**1\. eat food**

 

"This is a waste of our time," Miwa says. He clutches a bag of cookies (store-bought, the cheapest he could find), only looking around to scowl in different directions.

Next to him, Yoneya laughs. "Are you kidding? I love Border's yearly shared lunches." They're early, but he's already spotted Director Kinuta awkwardly carrying out his social duties by trying to make conversation with Midorikawa. It's a hilariously bad choice. Yoneya's pretty sure Kusakabe Unit came already hyped up on sugar.

"Hey! Excited for the food?" Jin pokes his head in between them. He's wearing a reindeer headband, and also several metres of tinsel.

"You could say so." Yoneya rubs his hands together in glee. "Which reminds me, where did your Bonchi crackers go? They're not letting us at the food until the lunch actually starts."

"Oh, they're not gone." Jin tips his head towards the long line of tables. "I couldn't disappoint everyone, could I?" He raises his eyebrows, but his attention is quickly snatched away. "Ah, there's Sawamura-san. Later!"

Yoneya looks at the tables. Situated prominently in the centre is a large bowl, almost overflowing with Bonchi crackers. A grin spreads across his face as he turns to Miwa. "Hey, Miwa, now you don't have to talk to Jin to eat his…oh."

He should have known. Miwa's disappeared, probably to go intimidate B-rank agents from some dark, damp corner. No Christmas spirit at all, that one. All his efforts to make Miwa wear a red scarf wasted. Ah, well. Might as well go join all the others lingering suspiciously close to the tables.

 

 

**2\. shoot promos**

 

Kitora manages to not frown as the make-up artists flutter around her, touching up her mascara, foundation (she already has flawless skin, thank you very much), and various other cosmetic trifles, but all bets are off as soon as they hustle out of the dressing room.

Of all her 'Face of Border' duties, this is the one she considers the most banal. They say practically the same lines every year. The production team could use the footage from last year and no-one would realise.

Tokieda and Satori look similarly uncomfortable. Tokieda is eyeing his makeup in the mirror like he wants to wipe it off to see if anyone notices. Kitora knows this look because in their first year, he actually did, and he probably would have gotten away with it if Kitora hadn't spotted a skin-coloured smear on his cuff. Satori is jiggling his leg, tapping his fingers on his thigh over and over and occasionally poking the gelled spikes of his hair.

Arashiyama, seemingly unaffected, senses their irritation. "Hey, guys. I know this is your least favourite Christmas tradition, but it's the extra donations from these ads that pay our bonuses, which pays for our ramen trips. Speaking of which, I'll take you guys out for one after this shoot is over! My treat."

At the mention of food which isn't the weak cordial and dry biscuits they were given for morning tea, or perhaps because of Arashiyama's patented Cheery Smile™, everyone visibly perks up.

Tokieda finally looks away from the mirror. "I'll take an extra-large serving of chashu with mine, thanks."

"Don't talk about food right now," Satori pleads. "I'm starving."

"That's your fault for not eating anything," says Kitora, stunningly unimpressed.

"Red just shows crumbs really easily! And I didn't want to get lectured again because the head make-up artist is scary, you know?"

Tokieda leaves Kitora and Satori to bicker it out uninterrupted. "Arashiyama-senpai, why are our uniforms red anyway? I bet if our uniforms were a really clashy colour they'd get another unit to do the Christmas commercials."

Arashiyama reaches up to scratch his head but remembers his hair styling at the last second. "Ah, well, you remember we couldn't decide, right? So I went home and asked Fuku and Saho and they said red."

"Somehow I'm not surprised."

"Imagine Miwa trying to do the ads in a Santa hat, though," begins Satori, unaffected by the full force of Kitora's condescension. "'Merry Christmas,'" he says in his best Miwa voice, fake-glowering at the room. "'I'm going to kill all the Neighbours with the power of my glare. We will deck the halls… _with their blood_.'"

Tokieda grins. Arashiyama and Kitora try to look disapproving.

"It's not nice to make fun of Miwa," Arashiyama reproaches, but he's suppressing a smile and the corner of Kitora's lips is twitching.

The door opens and one of the stage assistants sticks her head in.

"Arashiyama Unit, it's time. Follow me, please."

Everyone stands up. "Game time," says Arashiyama.

"You mean almost ramen time," Tokieda replies.

Satori's stomach grumbles before he does.

 

 

**3\. feel the chill**

 

They had been outside barely five minutes, and already the wind has wormed its way through the chinks of Osamu's jacket.

"I can't believe Japan could get so cold," Yuuma says. He shoves his fists deeper inside his pockets.

"It's winter now. Don't Neighbour worlds have seasons?" Osamu takes note of Yuuma's slightly hunched stance and the way he's hugging himself a little.

"N-not as extreme as t-this." Yuuma wavers, then sneezes.

Osamu sighs. "As soon as school is over, we're going to go buy you some warmer clothing. Take my scarf for now." He unwinds it from his neck as the wind threatens to tug it from his hands.

"I'b okay, really-" Yuuma sneezes twice.

Osamu coils his scarf around Yuuma's neck and tucks the ends in.

The warm fabric suddenly burns against Yuuma's chilled neck and cheeks. "Well, thanks." He curls numb fingers into the soft wool.

 

Yuuma hums as he makes his way back home from Tamakoma that weekend. It's been a good day. Mikumo Unit's preparations for their first trip to the Neighbourhood are going really well. He feels like skipping a little bit, and he does, because it's still quite cold and he forgot to wear his scarf, and wouldn't take Osamu's.

The patch of ice on the pavement catches him completely off-guard. His ankle twinges as the ground flips up over his head, concrete grinding on cloth on skin, cold seeping through his clothing. When he finally comes to a halt he inspects his injuries. A couple of scrapes here and there, and his ankle seems broken, but that's not his main concern.

Sitting on the roadside, he pokes at one of his grazes. It leaks trion discharge, dull in the headlamps of a passing vehicle, and knits itself together. He recalls the car crashes, how they managed to crack his skull and he was fine moments later. But he's been sitting down for a while now and his ankle has yet to heal.

Yuuma purses his lips. He'd noticed his trion ability decreasing a little in the Rank Wars a while back, but since they had been fighting a lot he had put it down to exhaustion. He should have remembered his real body wouldn't have stayed stable forever. Its condition would have started deteriorating eventually. Skin, lungs, trion organ, rotting away as the ring sits heavy on his hand. A cold, creeping fear lingers at the threshold of his heart and this time he's not sure it's the weather.

But. They're so close to what they've always wanted. He can't let Osamu know. That four-eyes already has too much to worry about. Osamu must not find out, not now. Not yet.

Yuuma stands up and begins to limp the rest of the way home.

 

 

**4. run away from familial duties like the useless swordfighting lump you are**

 

Tachikawa is literally about to click on the 'Submit form' button when something fast-moving whirls over his shoulder and slices through the mouse cord, jerking the mouse out of his hand. He spins around on the computer chair, slightly alarmed.

"Sensei, why," he says upon seeing Director Shinoda. "I hope you're going to pay for that."

Shinoda ignores him. "Kei, were you going to sign up for volunteering your entire Christmas break to patrol duty?"

Tachikawa looks at the screen, then back at Shinoda, who looks away from the computer screen to fix gimlet eyes on him. "No?"

"Don't think I haven't noticed. For the past five years, you've spent most of your Christmas break at Border."

"I'm very dedicated to my work." Tachikawa wheels over to the next computer in the IT room and begins to jimmy the mouse cord out of the computer.

"Your mother contacted me," Shinoda reveals. Tachikawa freezes. "She wants you to be free for this year's Christmas break, so I'm banning you from holiday shifts this year."

Tachikawa is aghast. "Sensei! Isn't this illegal?" He tries to inject as much wounded indignation into his voice as possible.

"I'm afraid not," Shinoda says, but he does look a little guilty. "Going to America to visit your relatives sounds enjoyable. Perhaps it will be better than you expect." He pats Tachikawa on the shoulder before pulling his kogetsu trigger out of the wall and leaving.

 

The trip to America is not better than Tachikawa expected. The only thing that keeps him sane in the endless flow of relatives is the reassuring weight of his triggers in his pocket.

Arriving back in Mikado city feels amazing. Tachikawa is off to the base faster than he can say "Mum can you take my luggage thanks". Shinoda can't complain, he's been on the holiday, he's been itching for some action since literally forever-

He's barely entered the restricted area when alarms start blaring. "Gate activity detected. Gate opening." A familiar black circle begins to crackle and expand only a few hundred meters away from him.

This has got to be positive karma paying him back for Christmas break. Definitely. He can see the familiar grey uniform of Kazama and some of his unit approaching in the distance. They're probably closer to the gate as well. That's just too bad, then- for them. He's faster.

"Trigger on!" The trion soldier barely has time to move before Tachikawa mows it down.

"Back from your holiday, I see," observes Kazama, staring down at him from a rooftop.

Tachikawa feels like Kazama is being unfairly judge-y. "I think was beginning to get withdrawal symptoms. In America, I almost activated my trigger in a bathroom just because I missed it so much."

Kazama still does not look the least bit sympathetic. "Please just get back to HQ before you jump some poor B-rank squad."

**Author's Note:**

> all I want for Christmas is more World Trigger fic.


End file.
